Last night, we saw the fruits of the Pentagon’s new “embed” relationship with journalists which allows the scribes to live and work freely amongst the troops and cover them in real time as they roll into battle. On-the-scene footage from CNN and FOX showed Army M2 and M3 Bradley fighting vehicles, M1 Abrams tanks, Humvees, and Marine Assault Amphibian and Light Armored Vehicles screaming north through the barren Iraqi desert unopposed. This is history in the making and the American people have been given the opportunity to share in it.
But it’s still a rough road for some reporters. The level of cooperation has been largely left up to the commanders. Luckily for the journos embedded with Army and Marine ground units, the local commanders have been very open, briefing journalists and photographers on the main battle plan weeks ago and trusting them not to reveal details until the war began. The trust forged between these reporters and military leaders has been kept, and could eventually repair the relationship between the press and the military that had soured since Vietnam.
Not, however, if you’re embedded with aviation units at Kuwait’s Al Jabr air base. And not if you’re one of the 30 journalists posted to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf. In both cases, reporters are being hounded by military public affairs officers who follow their every move and look over their shoulders as they interview aviators, sailors, and maintainers for their stories.
Strict ground rules and monitoring have put a chill on reporting any worthwhile news from these locations. One Los Angeles Times reporter writes that her minders on the Abraham Lincoln wrote down the names and ranks of those she interviewed aboard ship and what they had said to her–as if the words would be held against the sailor at a later date. (These Gestapo-style tactics aren’t reflected throughout the fleet. The USS Kitty Hawk, for example, had a long meeting with the 30 reporters assigned to it the day they arrived. Afterwards they were cut loose to go about their business–unescorted.)
Commanders who have straitjacketed their embeds haven’t done their units any favors. The heroism and courage of Air Force and Marine aviators flying missions out of Al Jabr have gone largely unreported; the exploits of the sailors and Navy aviators manning the armada of U.S. ships throughout the Middle East have been buried. The war America sees is being fought in the deserts, with soldiers and Marines whose commanders realize their troops deserve recognition for achievements they’ve trained so hard to accomplish. Let’s hope other commanders discard their suspicion of the media and help put the equally noteworthy exploits of their forces into America’s living rooms–where they belong.
Christian Lowe is a staff writer for Army Times Publishing and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard.
